Crippled Kurt Ingston (Ralph Morgan) has no arms or legs despite the fact that three doctors tried to save him (from what is never said). He invites all three of them to his creepy estate and says there are no hard feelings...but then the doctors start getting killed and his house is full of suspicious characters.

I caught this on late night TV when I was a kid and remember being pleasurably spooked by it. It's nice to see it still holds up all these years later. First off don't let the top billing of Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill fool you--they're hardly in the movie. Lugosi is totally wasted as a sinister butler and Atwill chews the scenery but is gone halfway through the movie. Most of it deals with Morgan and various supporting characters. The good thing is all the supporting actors are interesting and well-acted especially by Leif Erickson as a lecherous chauffeur and Nils Asther as a sinister yogi. The direction is very good and the movie has a nice dark atmosphere. There's a VERY spooky scene where one of the doctors is approached by the killer. Another nice touch is all the frogs and animals in the swamp surrounding the estate go dead quiet when the killer appears. The sudden dead silence is more than a little unnerving. The final sequence when you find out who the killer is doesn't make a lot of sense but the movie is so good that you let that go. A low-budget horror from Universal that is exceptionally well-done. I give it an 8.

This movie really surprised me. In the 1940s, Bela Lugosi made a huge number of grade-Z horror films. They might be fun to watch, but all too often the films have tons of plot holes and they were obviously made with practically no budget. This film, however, has very good production values and is quite original--and as a result, I had a very good time watching it.

Now before I go any further, it's important to note that although Lugosi got top billing and the videotape cover prominently shows his face, the film really ISN'T a Bela Lugosi film. His role, unfortunately for "Lugosi-philes" is amazingly small and ill-defined. He never seems to be the star nor does he have much to do with all the weird murders that are occurring in the film. In many ways, this is like the appearance of Lionel Atwill in the film--he's there but his part is terribly small.

Despite this, the film is still excellent and most of this is due to the excellent writing. The story is quite original and although I could guess early on who was committing all the murders, the way it was handled was very clever. Probably the best part of the film, though, was the part played by Robert Homans, as the Constable. He has so many wonderful and funny lines that I thoroughly loved watching the old curmudgeon investigate the crimes.

Finally, a bit of trivia. The rich old man in the film is played by Ralph Morgan. He bears a lot of physical resemblance to Frank Morgan (the Wizard from the Wizard of Oz) because they were brothers.

Some medical doctors led by Lionel Atwill are brought to the estate of the rich, but bedridden Ralph Morgan. They're there to watch a demonstration of the occult powers of a Hindu fakir played by Nils Asther.

Well this guy really has something, by sheer concentrated will power Asther creates a skeleton and might create a whole man before his concentration is broken. If you can teach this technique to amputees you might have them recreate and grow lost limbs. Of course this is all in the experimental stage. But pretty soon a whole lot of people around the estate start dying and the more that die, the suspect list gets shorter for police captain Robert Homans. In fact all the doctors but Irene Harvey start dying off as well as other guests and staff of the household.

Universal Pictures in this Gothic horror story with no real monsters as such spent a lot of this budget on getting a slew of players who specialize and/or have played some creepy villains. The cast is led by Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill who are the only ones billed above the title. Lugosi plays Morgan's butler and legend has it that butlers are the first to be looked at in any mystery. But believe any one or combination thereof are plausible culprits.

Quite an unusual ending here though, but keep in mind what all these people are gathered to witness. Night Monster is shot on the cheap, but this cast of players more than makes up for it.